Though no one’s yet put up their hand in response to Travis’ entry today, there are plenty of other crazy Nanowrimo writers out there. Tomorrow night we bask in the glory of our achievement.

Regardless of wordcount, all of us can attend the Thank God It’s Over Party (more details on the Vancouver Nano forum).

I’ve made it to the 50,000-word goal line. Now there is the problem of whether or not I’ll ever make it to the party.

I’ve had my heart set on going to at least one Nano meeting since I missed the opening party because of my job. Every week there was a meetup and a write-in. Matt went to one meeting only to find out that the website displayed the wrong timezone and he was late as a result. I went to another meeting, saw the group but went to buy my coffee first; when I turned the corner to get to the writers’ table, all the writers were gone. During my penultimate attempt, I was locked out of the building. May the Gods smile on me tomorrow.

Vancouver has always been a hotbed for Japanese food trends… For example, Ichibankan, a restaraunt just north of Robson and Thurlow was the first Japanese restaraunt in North America to introduce those rotating belt sushi bars… even a few years before the ones at Tsunami Sushi.

Now, the big Japanese restaraunt trend these days is the Izakaya Japanese Restaraunt. You won’t find ordinary California Rolls in these places… Think of them as a fusion of Japanese and western food, with an ‘Iron Chef” feel to them.

So far, the best one that I’ve been to can be found in Coquitlam on the the corner of Lougheed and St. Johns, just beside the Superstore. They have the usual Japanese fare, but they add creative combinations. For example, the Philly roll combines your basic California roll with Philedalphia Cream Cheese and Korean red pepper paste. The Rainbow roll includes your BC with bits of Mango with a bit of Pinapple chutney along the side of the plate!

A bit more expensive, but so delicious.

If you know of any good Izakaya restaraunts include them in your comments.

The area on Broadway around the VGH (hospital) is a fantastic mecca for food during the day and evening. There is every sort of Asian ethnic cuisine (“Afghan,” “Mongolian,” Japanese, different kinds of Chinese, Singapore, Indian) and that includes the very best Malaysian in the city at Banana Leaf.(more…)

I was out having a meal at this garishly neon-lit eatery on the weekend and looked up beside me to see this “sign.” You may click on the image to see the sign clearly to see what I mean…. I say we egg the place…. (joking)

(Note: I love Toronto and Torontonians – it’s just that I cracked up when I saw this despite BC gov ad campaigns last year about this province being the “Best Place on Earth,” or something or other.)

Today is the end of National (for the U.S.) Novel Writing Month. The object is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, which works out to about 1.2 litres of blood and sweat per day, which must be replaced by an equal amount of coffee.

I know that our own Matt and Oana and Jenny have been writing novels this month — and who in their sane mind joins a new blog the same month they’re writing an entire novel!? — But are there any other Vancouverites who are participating in this yearly self-flagellation?

Okay so I’m not entirely convinced that this isn’t some kind of joke but while rumaging around MySpace I found that enviromentalist, scientist and SFU lecturer David Suzuki has a profile on the site.

First off apparently he is in my extended network, then again so is Sloan I see, and he’s also so much more popular than me it made me sit down in a corner of my apartment and have myself a little cry. Currently the man who I used to watch on Nova has 1827 friends.

Described as “one of the world’s most effective popularizers of science, alongside Carl Sagan and Jacques Cousteau,” Suzuki has considerable charm and intelligence. His social consciousness is as sharp as his piercing eyes. Jerry Bruckley observed in International Wildlife, “He’s passionate, driven, irreverent, brilliant, charismatic, and controversial, and usually in the same sentence.”

That’s from the profile, but it’s still worth a visit. It’s got a fairly awful and garish layout and a really cheesy MIDI file playing our national anthem.

Also if anyone wants to help me surpass the such great heights I’ve reached at three MySpace friends you can find my profile here.

Something that always strikes me as a little amusing about Vancouver is our reaction to what we feel as cold.
I work in a small office of only 8 people. Today, with our little bit of snow i was very amused to see each and every guy in the office, other than myself wear a hat to work today. All but one guy in a toque, the one without, wishing he had one.

It was chilly out right? Ya see, i’m just not sure i get it. I grew up in Chetwynd and then Williams Lake, up north. I was one of the kids that tried to be cool…you didn’t wear a toque until it was below 25 deg outside. You just didn’t feel the cold until then. Or at least that’s what you claimed. Over the years for myself this actually began to be more true than not.

So when i see every head around me pop up with a toque on it…and i’m wondering if i should maybe start thinking about doing up my jacket sometime soon, it just amuses me.

Then again, maybe the nickname i had in university was more true than not, The Arctic Char.

Yesterday, DJ Jeff O’Neil called up Kyle to find out more about his trades (listen here). The radio station started with a rock (get it? The Fox rocks…) and is already at a pink snowboard. They will continue trading for bigger or better things, then auction off the last trade, with proceeds going to charity as part of the Santa Fox Food Drive.

So can you trade them something bigger? Email Kyle or Jeff with your offer.

Surrey Conservative MP Gurmant “Mix Tape” Grewal is bowing out of the upcoming federal election according to a report by the CBC. It seems that he thought that at least one of the four seperate investigations into him might prove to hurt his campaign chances.(more…)

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation meanwhile is taking a slight break from their no-confidence induced look back at how Joe Clark fell from grace to talk clearly and rationally about how Vancouver “Hawaii East” British Columbia is dealing with our snow. They quote Doug Henderson from ICBC in their article.

“Last year when we had a big snow storm in January we were seeing some days with a 15 per cent increase in phone calls, telephone claims,” says spokesperson Doug Henderson.

He says the big problem is that drivers here just don’t get enough opportunity to practise.

Of course since I want to try to enjoy some of the Seattle media style freaking out I went to Canada.com, the site for the Province and Vancouver Sun as run by CanWest. Apparently they’re too busy updating their website from an early 1990s’ flavour to a late 1990s’ flavour to have noticed that it snowed.

So we can expect the big freak out tomorrow then? Perhaps more traffic chaos?

They do report that the United Nations has declared that Whistler is a swanky place to live. Which is some kind of wonderful isn’t it? Because we all wanted the weekend ski condo owning set to have something else to feel good about.

Meanwhile a stop by the Metroblogs of cities who know how to deal with snow like real Canadians find that Montr